Los Angeles FC forward Carlos Vela (10) comes down the pitch against the FC Cincinnati during the first half of a Major League Soccer match at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. on Saturday April 13, 2019. Los Angeles FC defeated FC Cincinnati 2-0. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr, Contributing Photographer)

Some sports summits appear unreachable, even if a path has been charted.

In men’s soccer, 20 goals plus 20 assists from one player during a single year of domestic league play represents a rarely reached level that reveals how much an individual can directly influence his team’s offensive output.

Major League Soccer players have scored 20 or more goals 26 times since 1996, while just two connected on at least 20 assists.

No one has managed to do both in the same year.

But don’t rule out LAFC’s Mexican star Carlos Vela after his extraordinary start to the 2019 season

It’s the second factor of the equation that makes the 20-20 club such “a tough number for anyone to reach,” said Los Angeles Football Club midfielder Lee Nguyen, who last year, during his seventh professional season, became the 20th MLS player to surpass 50 goals and 50 assists for his career.

Landon Donovan owns the all-time MLS records for goals and assists, yet he never led the highest-scoring soccer league in the world in both categories at the same time, nor did he eclipse 20 assists over the course of any season.

The 20-20 season has happened in the wider world of soccer, though.

Arsenal’s Thierry Henry went 24-20 during 37 games in 2002-2003, finishing one off the pace for most goals, and, remarkably, becoming the only player to assist 20 times during a season in the English Premier League.

The great Lionel Messi has fallen short of 20-20 because he has not found 20 assists during the 38-match La Liga season. (The only person to do so is legendary Barcelona playmaker Xavi Hernandez.) Messi’s career high in assists, 18, occurred in 2014-15, and his best combined goal-assist year in the league was an astounding 65 (50-15) in 2011-12.

Established by Sebastian Giovinco for Toronto FC in 2015, the MLS measuring stick for combined goals and assists is 38.

The Italian’s MVP year featured 22 goals plus 16 assists in 33 appearances, making him the first player to surpass 20-10 in America’s top division and lead both categories in a single season.

Ten weeks into the 2019 MLS campaign, ahead of LAFC’s home contest this Saturday against the Chicago Fire (2-4-3, 9 points), Mexican star Carlos Vela has put Giovinco’s record-setting year as well as the 20-20 club in his sights, combining for more goals (11) plus assists (5) than anyone in MLS history at this stage of a season.

“That would be ridiculous,” Nguyen said. “It’s possible with the rate Carlos is going at. You can’t say it’s impossible.”

Considering LAFC (7-1-2, 23 points) has created 50 more shots than the next MLS side, including 20 more shots on goal than any team in the league, Vela “can get 20 assists no problem,” Nguyen said, “because obviously he’s in the final third and a lot of our attacking chances start with him.”

Any real shot at a milestone 2019 season could hinge on whether or not the 30-year-old forward appears in all 34 MLS contests, four fewer than Henry had to work with at Arsenal.

Vela had 14 goals and 13 assists in 28 appearances last year as he missed several LAFC matches while playing for El Tri at the FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Vela has not skipped an MLS date for the first-place Black & Gold this year, and he desires to play every minute. However if Mexico head coach Tata Martino calls on him to appear at this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, Vela could miss three LAFC match days in league play.

“The great players in all sports rewrite everything,” LAFC head coach Bob Bradley said. “What Carlos is so motivated by is to show he’s that kind of player.”

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